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Advocacy

MLA InSight Initiative Fall 2020 Forum

Equitable Access to Knowledge

On October 29–30, 2020, MLA hosted a free online fall forum open to all. This was the sixth summit in the MLA InSight Initiative, bringing together health sciences librarians, end users, scholarly communication, and information provider organizations in high-level, high-value dialogue on issues that matter to all those in our community. For more information about this initiative—including objectives, outcomes, guidelines, and task force members—please consult the InSight Initiative home page.

Equitable Access to Knowledge

The fall forum introduces a new summit cycle, the theme of which, Equitable Access to Knowledge, stems broadly from long-standing discourse in health information communities and specifically from new challenges that have arisen from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The forum comprises a keynote address, a themed panel discussion, and intense small group discussion sessions centered around the theme and will address questions of seamless, sustainable access to information and responsibilities of libraries and publishers in the COVID-19 era, including the challenges of remote learning and inequities in access across disenfranchised health communities.

Anticipated Outcomes

This fall forum aims to identify vexing problems and transformational opportunities health sciences librarians and information providers face in promoting equitable access. Through intense small group discussion and collaboration, participants will first achieve consensus on the single vexing problem or transformational opportunity that will be the focus of the next three working summits and identify two to three desired outcomes addressing the chosen problems or opportunity. The call to participate in these summits will be made in early 2021.

Dates

October 29, 2020, 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m., eastern

October 30, 2020, 2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m., eastern

This meeting will take place virtually, using Zoom.

Summit Participants

Registrants can participate either as full or partial registrants.

  • Full registrants are obligated to attend and participate in all six hours of the forum.
  • Partial participants will attend only the keynote speech on Thursday and the panel discussion on Friday.

For those registering for full participation, MLA plans for balanced representation of health sciences librarians and health information providers, and will convene up to thirty-two librarians and thirty-two representatives from information provider organizations. The need for equal representation among librarians and health information providers does not apply to those registering just for the keynote and the panel.

Steering Committee

Librarians

  • John Gallagher, Committee Chair, Yale University, New Haven, CT
  • Nadine Dexter, AHIP, University of Central Florida–Orlando
  • Donna Gibson, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
  • Roxann Mouratidis, AHIP, Florida State University–Tallahassee

Health Information Providers

  • Priya Arora, Wolters Kluwer Health
  • Richard Gallagher, Annual Reviews
  • Susan Haering, NEJM
  • Jason Malley, McGraw-Hill Education

Liaisons and Facilitators

  • Kristine M. Alpi, AHIP, Oregon Health & Science University–Portland, and Liaison, MLA Board of Directors
  • Gerald (Jerry) Perry, AHIP, FMLA, University of Arizona–Tucson, and Liaison
  • Daniel J. Doody, Facilitator, Doody Consulting
  • Tim Butzen, Facilitator, Doody Consulting

InSight Initiative Articles

MLA InSight Initiative Fall Forum Future Possibilities and Opportunities


InSight Initiative Videos


Guest Post: MLA InSight — How to Buy Whisky


It’s Called Predatory Publishing for a Reason!


Report from InSight Summit 2: How Can Librarians, Publishers, and Providers of Discovery and Management Tools Collaborate to More Effectively Communicate the Value of Information?


Participating Organizations (2020)

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